Gallagher was Chelsea's identity crisis personified

There was a huge flag at Stamford Bridge last season. It featured a picture of Conor Gallagher and three words: “Chelsea since birth”.

- RICHARD JOLLY

All of which explains why Chelsea have sold him. The surprise lies only in the destination, not the departure.

The midfielder’s imminent move, to Atletico Madrid, has felt inevitable since Clearlake Capital discovered that academy products bring pure profit when it comes to PSR. It made Gallagher simultaneously Chelsea’s most valuable player and their most dispensable.

The various realities of the 2024 Chelsea can jar when they collide. Yesterday saw Gallagher flying to Madrid and brought a Conference League draw, pairing Chelsea with Braga or Servette. It shows a slide in status. They were Fifa Club World Cup winners two years ago: now they have qualified for Europe for the first time in the Todd Boehly era.

Regression has been dressed up as progress, sales required to offset silly spending. The £33m recouped for Gallagher won’t cancel out the punts on various random young midfielders – Omari Kellyman, Lesley Ogochukwu, Carney Chukwuemeka, Cesare Casadei and Andrey Santos come to almost £100m between them – or pay for the fee of Romeo Lavia (who played 32 minutes in his debut season) but in accounting terms, it became invaluable when some £1.2bn was committed in fees and managerial pay-offs.

All of which rendered Gallagher a potent symbol: of a Chelsea that was lost, of the unintended consequences of the financial fair play regulations, of Clearlake’s ability to focus on the balance sheet when selling, even if some of their signings suggest they know the value of nothing. He is their identity crisis in human form.